Pope flies in after Spanish riot police, protesters clash

‘NOT WITH MY TAXES’:The outcry that has struck a chord with many is over the official 50.5 million euro price tag of the World Youth Day festival in Madrid

AFP, MADRID

A police officer scuffles with a protester during a demonstration against the expensive cost of a papal visit in Madrid on Wednesday.

Photo: Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Madrid yesterday for a million-strong Catholic youth festival after Spanish riot police swung batons in clashes with anti-Church protesters over the cost of the visit.

Benedict flew out of Rome at about 9:30am, hours after thousands took to the streets of Spain’s capital to decry the official 50 million euro (US$72 million) bill for the six-day World Youth Day festival at a time of economic hardship.

After an official greeting at Madrid-Barajas airport, he entered the city driving through the streets in his transparent popemobile to the Vatican ambassador’s residence, with thousands of pilgrims gathered along the route.

In the evening, the papal cortege was scheduled to head to the emblematic Plaza Cibeles in central Madrid for a welcoming ceremony. The Spanish air force were expected to perform a fly over, drawing the colors of the Vatican and Spanish flags in the sky.

Late into the night on the eve of the 84-year-old pontiff’s arrival, anti-papal protesters and hundreds of young Roman Catholics hurled insults at each other in Madrid’s central square, Puerta del Sol.